The Secret: Georgia Production Partnership - Southern Screen Report

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In the Spotlight By Pamela Cole It all started with Laura Mulvey in 1975. If you’ve ever endured the agony of a film theory class, you may remember Laura Mulvey (in fact, it’s probably all you remember from that class). That’s because Mulvey wrote about sex and gender and voyeurism (hard-to-forget topics) in her influential essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Her controversial ideas about “the controlling male gaze,” based on Freudian concepts, have fueled academic debate in film, sociology, psychology, women’s studies, and gender and cultural studies. A local filmmaking project has now taken up that debate. “The Woman’s Angle,” founded by Tracy Martin and Bret Wood (the team that created Psychopathia Sexualis) is again treading into the territory of sexual controversy. The Woman’s Angle is “a short film project specifically designed for the new or established woman director who desires an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding and appreciation of her voice as a filmmaker.” DP Marc Story and director Tracy Martin on the set of Sucker Punch, a film in The Woman’s Angle Project (Photo by Pam Cole) “As much as I detest singling out a group of people for their experience or their talent, I started feeling like it would be empowering for me as well as other women if we could come together and say ‘let’s do this together,’” explained Martin, who was one of nine filmmakers that completed short films as part of the first Woman’s Angle project. “I think more women would make films if we had an environment that was more collaborative, that allows them to move forward,” said Martin, citing the fact that only 16% of filmmakers (directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, or editors) are women. (Source: “The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women in the Top 250 Films of 2004,” Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D.) Martin has produced several films including the 2006 sensation, Psychopathia Sexualis. She recently directed a short (Day Trip) that appeared in the Atlanta Film Festival. Laura Mulvey? It was co-founder Wood who mentioned Mulvey’s essay, after Martin approached him about wanting to start a project for women-only directors. In a really broad nutshell, Mulvey says that since most films are made by men, they naturally give us a male view of the world — showing men as more powerful, featuring mostly male protagonists, and focusing on stories Page 6 May 2007 www.screenreport.com The Woman’s Angle Nancy Knight and Deirdre Walsh (Photo by Sherri Larsen) that are important to men. Oh, and seeing women mainly as sexual objects. Mulvey says this “male gaze” is the classic perspective of Hollywood films. “I don’t know that I agree with everything she says, but she makes some very strong points that open the discussion,” said Martin about Mulvey. The original group of twelve women in The Woman’s Angle discussed Mulvey’s essay and watched film clips from the 30s and 40s that illustrated her ideas. “We were rolling on the floor. It was amazing how women were portrayed in earlier films! It’s not as obvious anymore, but there are still plenty of movies that are examples of her opinions,” Martin said. It was then up to the directors to decide on the story they wanted to tell. There were no restrictions on theme, genre, or adhering to Mulvey’s premise. “We encouraged directors to either embrace or completely defy Laura Mulvey’s opinions. I wanted this to be just ‘what is your angle as a woman?’ To achieve that was a theme within itself,” said Martin. Rules of the Game Taking a page from the successful Atlanta Dailies Project, The Woman’s Angle Continued on Next Page
allows filmmakers to collaborate on all aspects of creating a film from script to screen. There is no fee to participate in The Woman’s Angle. “There were two main rules: the director had to be a woman, and you had to workshop your script with the group,” said Martin, stressing that the workshops were “not as diligent or aggressive as I would have liked them to have been.” Some films went over the original ten-minute time limitation, which the group decided to allow after discussing the reasons why it happened. “In the indie film community there’s a bit of resistance or suspicion when it comes to saying we’re going to workshop your script. In theater, where I started, plays are workshopped all the time. But it’s a new thing in the indie film community. So we were a little reluctant to scare people with too much workshopping.” The Woman’s Angle began meeting monthly on Sept. 13, 2006, sponsored by yourACT in collaboration with Sketchworks theater. yourACT agreed to let The Woman’s Angle meet and screen their films at Sketchworks in exchange for a share in the ticket sales from the screenings. “yourACT has been wonderful,” stressed Martin. “It’s been incredible how many people and companies have come out and helped these women make their films,” she said, adding that each film set it’s own budget and was self-financed. Most were under $3,000—some way under. Future TWA Projects The next Woman’s Angle project is scheduled to start in January 2008 and will run for nine months, as did this one. “Yeah, it’s a big joke,” laughed Martin, when I pointed out that that’s exactly how long it takes to have a baby. “But it wasn’t intentional. It’s just that six months was too short and a year was too long. You have to be able to work within people’s schedules, and nine months seems to be just right.” For the next project, Martin wants to have scripts submitted in advance and approved to go forward before the workshopping process. She also hopes to be able to offer filmmakers some financial support, adding that “if you don’t have a little bit of money, it’s very difficult to make a decent film.” “We’re going to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit and generate more backing, and accept donations. It would be ideal if we could help back each project with just a little bit of soft money. It would be great to be able to go to the vendors in this city and ask them to sponsor us.” While The Woman’s Angle is open to all levels, Martin hopes to attract more professional women directors to the next project. “There are a lot of women directors in Atlanta who do commercial or feature work. Making shorts just isn’t where they’re at anymore. But I knew that after our inaugural project, we would get some interest.” She says that she now gets “daily” e-mails from women who want to be involved in the next project. Overall, response to The Woman’s Angle project has been “overwhelmingly positive” according to Martin. But there was one recurring question. “You wouldn’t believe how many people asked me, ‘Oh you’re not going to make another Oxygen film, are you?,’ which there is nothing wrong with. But nobody ever asks guys, ‘are you gonna make another comedy or action film?’” Martin says she just wanted women “to get behind the camera and shoot what was important to them—from their angle.” The Woman’s Angle “It was a learning process, we’ve got kinks to work out, but I can’t tell you how wonderful it’s been! We were successful at building a collaborative filmmaking community—we actually did it!” The first nine graduates of The Woman’s Angle project will premiere their works at four screenings on June 1-3 at Sketchworks. (Friday & Saturday at 8 pm; Saturday & Sunday at 5 pm.) There will be a Q&A with the directors after each screening. Tickets are $10. For more information, see http://www. cinemaweb.com/womansangle. § Films screening in The Woman’s Angle: Angela Harvey - Sleep Keep Wake Take Avril Z. Speaks - Defining Moments Cara Price - Voices Deirdre Walsh - Insanity Du Jour Kathleen Kelly - Je Ne Sais Quoi Kimberly Jürgen - Fortune’s Fool Kristi Israel - Changing Baby Shandra L. McDonald - The Promise Tracy Martin - Sucker Punch www.screenreport.com May 2007 Page 7
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The Secret: Georgia Production Partnership - Southern Screen Report

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